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Transportation or penal transportation is the sending of convicted criminals to a penal colony. For example, France transported convicts to Devil's Island and the UK to its colonies in the Americas (from the 1610s until the American Revolution in the 1770s) and Australia (1788–1868).

Origin

A convict who had served part of his time might apply for a ticket of leave permitting some prescribed freedoms. This enabled some convicts to resume a more normal life, to marry and raise a family, and a few to develop the colonies while removing them from the society. Exile was an essential component and thought a major deterrent. Transportation was also seen as a humane and productive alternative to execution, which would most likely have been the sentence for many if transportation had not been introduced.

In British colonial India, opponents of British rule were transported to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman islands.

North America

North America was used for transportation from the early 17th century to the American Revolution of 1776. In the 17th century, it was done at the expense of the convicts or the shipowners. The first Transportation Act in 1718 allowed courts to sentence convicts to seven years' transportation to America. In 1720, extension authorised payments by the state to merchants contracted to take the convicts to America. Under the Transportation Act, returning from transportation was a capital offence.

The gaols became overcrowded and dilapidated ships were pressed into service, the hulks moored in various ports as floating gaols. The number of convicts transported to North America is not verified although it has been estimated to be 50,000 by Dr John Dunmore Lang. These went originally to New England, the majority of prisoners taken in battle from Ireland and Scotland. Some were sold as slaves to the Southern states.

From the 1620s until the American Revolution, the British colonies in North America received transported British criminals. The American Revolutionary War brought that to an end and, since the remaining British colonies in what is now Canada were close to the new United States of America, prisoners sent there might become hostile to British authorities. Thus, the British Government was forced to look elsewhere.

Australia

In 1787, the "First Fleet" departed from England, to establish the first British settlement in Australia, as a penal colony. They arrived at Port Jackson (Sydney) on 26 January 1788, a date now celebrated as Australia Day. In 1803, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) was also settled as a penal colony, followed by the Moreton Bay Settlement (Queensland) in 1824. The other Australian colonies were "free settlements", as non-convict colonies were known. However, the Swan River Colony (Western Australia) accepted transportation from England and Ireland in 1851, to resolve a long-standing labour shortage. Until the massive influx of immigrants during the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s, the settler population had been dominated by English and Irish convicts and their descendants. However, compared to America, Australia received a significantly higher number of English prisoners.

Transportation from Britain/Ireland officially ended in 1868 although it had become uncommon several years earlier.

See also

• Exile
• Deportation
• Prison
• Devil's Island
• Millbank Prison
• Australian history before 1901
• Convicts in Australia
• Australian penal colonies
• Convict ship

References

1. "Punishments at the Old Bailey". Old Bailey Proceedings Online. Retrieved 20 April 2008.
2. R v Powell, Sixth session Proceedings of the Old Bailey 10th July, 1805 t18050710-23, page 401 (Old Bailey 10 July 1805).
3. Bound for America. The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718–1775 by A. Roger Ekirch. ISBN 0198202113
4. McConville, S, A History of English Prison Administration: Volume I 1750–1877 (London, Boston & Henley: 1981)pp.381–385 ISBN 0-7100-0694-2

• Pardons & Punishments: Judges Reports on Criminals, 1783 to 1830: HO (Home Office) 47 Volumes 304 and 305, List and Index Society, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, TW9 4DU.

External links

• UK National archives
• Convict life – State Library of NSW
• Convict Transportation Registers
• Convict Queenslanders

• Use dmy dates from March 2013
• Forced migration
• Immigration to Australia
• Convictism in Australia
• Punishments
• Crime in Australia
• Penal labor